Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will make an assessment of the applicability to decisions on tax treatment in the UK of the precedent established in the October 1958 GATT dispute initiated by Austria against Italy, case reference GD/54, and the resolution agreed between those countries in May 1961, publication reference SR 18/4.

GATT dispute reports are often considered at the World Trade Organisation in dispute settlement proceedings. However, GATT dispute reports do not set precedents in the way that judgments do in the domestic legal system.

The particular case referred to (GD/54) was settled following consultations (SR.18/4) and never came before a GATT adjudicator. There was therefore no GATT dispute report for this case.